Re: My GOD - Windows updates

In article <S7CdndyEnqs7y1LUnZ2dnUVZ_rmdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Steve de Mena <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

ZnU wrote:
In article <vs-dnaYxaJE5blPUnZ2dnUVZ_t6dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Steve de Mena <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Lloyd Parsons wrote:
In article <mr-2839D3.13121428032009@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Sandman <mr@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

So I told a friend that I would wipe Vista from her laptop and install
Windows XP since Vista was way too slow. I like Vista, but not enough
to try to find out if it could be sped up.

So I wiped the hard drive and installed XP Home.

I am now at my NINTH reboot since installing, and it's not done yet.
Every single time I reboot the machine, WIndows update says there are
critical updates. Every time! And going to Acers homepage and
downloading drivers for the graphics (both nvidia and ATI) said that
"no compatible hardware found)

Jesus - I had to install drivers to enable WLAN on this machine!

God I hate Windows.
That's what I found when I wanted to run Windows XP with Parallels on my
iMac. All I wanted was to run Playon Media Server. Took the best part
of the morning to get things good enough. It isn't just that there are
so many updates, but damn near anything that requires installation also
requires a reboot. what a PITA.

I finally turned off the auto update thing and said to hell with it. It
is running the Playon server fine and I don't need more updates to dick
around with.

To be fair, it did take awhile to bring Mac up to date also, but you can
do it nearly unattended.
I guess you would expect eight years of updates to install in 20
minutes with one reboot?

It's nearly as bad with Vista already.

The way this really should work is that all the OS updates prior to the
last few months should be bundled up into a single package that installs
everything in one go, and then the stuff too recent to be in that
package gets installed afterwards. This reduces the number of reboots
necessary to two or three at the worst, and sometimes just one.

Apple does this. Why is Microsoft apparently so hapless?

Microsoft has 100 million (or more) hardware combinations to support.
Do you really want to download a 50GB or so update just so it can be
in one package for your convenience?

This is not really the issue. Most of the updates Windows is installing
are not hardware specific.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

It is broke.

I did a fresh install of OS X on a Dell MIni 9 about a week ago and I
am not so sure it did all the updates in 2 passes.

It depends on the exact timing of when you're installing relative when
Apple has pushed out its latest "combo updater". But even at its worst,
it's a lot better than the situation with Windows.

--
"The game of professional investment is intolerably boring and over-exacting to
anyone who is entirely exempt from the gambling instinct; whilst he who has it
must pay to this propensity the appropriate toll." -- John Maynard Keynes
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: SP2 - Why bother?
    ... where are the major security updates for this OS?" ... A SunSparc with Windows ... >> Since you "don't quite understand the theory of installing SP2", ... > Choices that I make, have associated risk, the risk of programs not ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Download Center
    ... IE8 users: Check out the free User-Agent Picker add-on, ... IE7 or Windows Vista) ... enable the Windows Firewall, if necessary) prior to installing, ... Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsupdate)
  • Re: Updates were unable to be successfully installed
    ... did not say that if you are gettting some of the updates but not ... Still assuming you have 32-bit Windows XP... ... Reboot and logon as administrative user. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsupdate)
  • Re: How workable is Vista?
    ... clicks almost the moment it boots up; I don't have to wait for all the startup applications to finish before I can get responses to anything I do. ... The main reason NT 3.51 was more reliable and stable than any windows version before or since is that the gui and drivers were in user space, ... There is no practical need to do updates to the original versions. ... In the most of cases you can continue safely without reboot even if they required it. ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)
  • Re: Re-installation problems
    ... Well other than the windows utility I did recently check with a Maxtor ... Finally I started installing the XP Home updates. ... "Splash" page and my machine would reboot itself. ... Now the HD isn't a RAID HD, but there are various raid mode options in the ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)